Wedding Bet (Fixer Brothers Construction Co #8)

14. Landry

14

LANDRY

A chilled breeze hit my skin as I walked out onto the long balcony that wrapped around the ballroom. My face was burning hot other than the streaks my tears had left. I scrubbed my palm over my face roughly and took a long sip of whiskey. The mountains, blanketed in white, loomed out in the distance.

“ Fuck ,” I whispered to myself, my voice slightly shaky.

All day.

All day I hadn’t been able to cry, and then it hit me like a ten-ton truck just from that slow dance with Jamie.

Talk about dissolving. The box inside me, where I’d been stuffing all my feelings for an entire year, had all but disintegrated. And now it felt like the walls I’d kept around myself were fading fast, too.

The last time I’d felt so raw was the moment Parker had told me he’d cheated on me. And now I felt like a tidal wave of emotion was suddenly right at my door, and there was nothing I could do to keep it away.

Music spilled out gently from inside the ballroom. No one else was out here, and I took a few deep breaths, finally getting my tears under control. The balcony was lit only by dim lanterns that dotted the railing every few feet, and I knew no one was going to see me out here unless they were looking.

I was alone.

Alone, like I’d been vowing to be for an entire year.

They always said to be careful what you wished for, but I’d never really understood that. I’d gotten a lot of things that I wished for in life, and each one had been better than the last.

For the first time ever, though, I was starting to think I was wrong.

Dead wrong.

Like I’d put myself in some sort of prison a year ago, all because someone had hurt me too badly. Had I needed to be alone after Parker? Yes. Unquestionably.

But… did I need to be alone forever?

The air outside was cold. I knew I should have headed back inside, joined the festivities, drank more alcohol, and just let loose, like Jamie had suggested. But it was as if I was paralyzed out on the balcony. Every time I tried to turn around and go back in, I couldn’t take the step.

I heard the sound of the door swinging open a few minutes later, and I half expected it to be some sort of resort staff telling me I couldn’t be out here.

When I saw Jamie, it was like something came unfrozen in me. This shining, bright spot in a week that had been an emotional hurricane. This person who had every reason to run away from me like I was a monster—and yet he kept trying with me, over and over.

I held up a hand to him. “I came out here to be alone—”

“I know. I’m sorry.” His eyes were so blue, even in the dim light. So full of compassion. “I just had to check on you.”

“Let me finish,” I said gently. “I came out here to be alone, but I’m so goddamn glad that you followed me, Jamie.”

He nodded slowly, then came to join me, leaning on the balcony railing and looking out at the mountain view. The lantern light highlighted his face, and I realized with a start that Jamie wasn’t just cute or adorable—he was strikingly handsome, with chiseled cheekbones and a beautiful jawline.

I was pretty sure I could look at him forever and never get sick of it.

“I… I don’t know what happened,” I said, summoning the will to speak out loud. “I haven’t cried in so long, but it just hit me, and it certainly wasn’t your fault.”

“I know you saw Parker and his fiance,” Jamie said apologetically. “I tried to block them from your view, but—”

“Parker?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you glimpse him dancing, and it upset you?” Jamie asked.

I shook my head. “I didn’t even realize Parker had gotten on the dance floor at all.”

Jamie’s brows lifted, realization falling over his face. “Oh,” he said, like it changed everything. “Then, you breaking down was…”

I let out a feeble laugh, turning back toward the mountains for a moment. “It was because slow dancing with you felt good,” I admitted. “Too good. Like something I shouldn’t want. Shouldn’t deserve. A road I’ve been so fucking scared of going down for so long.”

Jamie was silent. For the first time, I was pretty sure I’d rendered him speechless, probably telling him things he might not feel like hearing.

“I apologize for pressuring you to dance,” he finally said.

“The dancing was great. It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?” Jamie finally asked. He turned to me, and it felt like his gaze was burning a hole into me, somehow finding a way directly to my soul. My throat tightened up again, but I was determined not to let any more tears dry on my cheeks tonight.

I had bottomed out. I had nothing left to lose.

And I had nothing left to say to Jamie but the truth.

“I want to be open to love again, Jamie,” I said, the words feeling strange and foreign coming out of my mouth. “I want to be, and I think I have wanted to be for a while now, and just haven’t been able to admit it.”

Jamie’s eyes danced across my face, searching for something. “Weddings can be emotional,” he said, trying to downplay it. “You don’t have to be sure about any of your feelings until later.”

“It’s not just the wedding,” I told him softly. “It’s something that’s been growing in me for a while. That’s definitely been uncovered, every second I’ve been with you. Because that’s apparently a superpower you have. The ability to be so supportive that anyone around you is a better version of themselves. I know I am, at least.”

He turned away. There was something guarded about his reaction, and after the things I’d told him all week, I didn’t blame him. “That’s very sweet, and I’m glad I’ve helped you,” he said. “I know you and I wouldn’t actually be together—in any world—but if you’re open to real love now, whoever it may end up being with… that’s great.”

“Why do you think that? That we wouldn’t ever be together?”

He looked down, giving me a shrug. “Because even in a world where you do want love, or a relationship, you also know we come from two different universes.” He met my eyes again, and this time, it looked like he’d given up hiding his truth. “Because you know you can do better.”

No.

No, no, no.

I leaned in and pressed my lips to his.

His lips were so warm. I clutched him close to me, sliding my hands under his jacket and holding his waist. He tasted like lavender from the cocktails, and when I really let myself admit it, I knew his body felt like some version of coming home.

I had to prove to him how wrong he was.

I was pretty sure I could never do better than Jamie.

I kissed him because I knew I would start crying again if I didn’t. I kissed him because it had been the only thing I’d wanted, all night, all day, all fucking week.

“Jamie,” I said before leaning in to kiss him again, wanting and needing more. “I have no idea if we’d date under other circumstances.” As I spoke, I punctuated every few words with another kiss, so hungry to be as close to him as I could. “And I have no idea if you’d even put up with my sorry ass in any circumstance. But I do know that you deserve the whole fucking world . You’re crazy to think I could ever do better than you.”

“You are way too nice to me,” he murmured as I kissed him along his jaw, pulling him even closer, so desperate for his warmth.

“Not even close.”

“ Fuck , why do you have to feel so good?” he said, groaning. I moved him, stepping over toward the tall brick wall nearby. I pushed his body back up against the wall, kissing any part of his skin I could find.

“I don’t understand it,” I said, nuzzling against the crook of his neck. “Something just clicks, for me, when I’m with you.”

I leaned back, looking at his eyes, searching for any sign that he felt the same way.

“You’re…” he said, his words trailing off as he looked at me.

“Tell me the truth,” I said softly, squeezing his hips. “I can take it.”

“You’re in the snowglobe with me,” he finally said, his voice barely a whisper.

Something sparkled inside me. Something I couldn’t name.

“What?” I asked.

Jamie bit his bottom lip, suddenly looking the slightest bit bashful. “All week, I’ve felt like I’m… in my own little snowglobe. Like a dream. Something that’ll only exist here. And this is the first time I’ve been sure that you’re in it with me, too.”

I held his gaze. “I am. I’m right here with you.”

He nodded once. “I feel it, too.”

Something was blooming inside of me. After a year of emptiness, it was the strangest feeling—to actually feel like something new could grow inside me. New hopes, new dreams, and new possibilities.

“Come back with me to my room tonight,” I told Jamie. “I want to go back out there to the wedding with you, dance with you, feed you a fucking slice of cake or anything , and then I want you in my bed.”

My heart was thudding in my chest. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been truly, electrically nervous. Not dread, but pure, joyous excitement.

It felt like I waited a lifetime before Jamie replied. But I saw something shift in his eyes, like he knew I was laying it all on the line now. Like he knew he could trust me.

“I hope you know what you’re in for,” he told me, “because if you woo me with dancing and cake and sex and sleep I might even start to get a crush on you, Landry.”

My heart rocketed in my chest. Out of all the things Jamie had just said to me, and after all we’d done together this week, the word that stood out to me the most and sent me wild was an unexpected one.

Crush.

I wanted him to have a crush on me.

Like I was a damn teenager without a care in the world. My heart felt like it was cracking all over again, but this time in a good way.

More like it was coming out of a cocoon. Like it was transformed into something that could fly.

“I sure hope so,” I finally said.

Jamie’s lips were on mine a moment later. He kissed me without hesitation, his hands sliding along the front of my shirt. I ran my fingers through his soft hair, gripping the back of his head as he kissed me, his tongue a beacon of warmth in the cold air.

When we walked into the ballroom a minute later, I took Jamie’s hand in mine without thinking twice.

We made it just in time to watch Chase and Adam cut their cake, surrounded by dozens of cream-colored flowers. As we walked over, Jamie squeezed my hand when we saw Parker and his fiance standing at the edge of the crowd.

I watched Parker’s eyes flicker down, noticing my hand clasped with Jamie’s. His fiance had a sneer on his face, watching the cake getting cut.

“Our cake better not have lemon in it,” he told Parker. “I don’t want our wedding to be anything like this.”

“Huh?” Parker said, clearly barely listening to his fiance. “Sure, yeah. Whatever.”

Even through all of the turmoil of the day, I knew that this wedding was one of the most gorgeous ones I’d ever been to. It could have been photographed for a wedding magazine, for God’s sake.

And in a snap, I realized something I’d been totally blind to before.

Parker—and seemingly, his new boo—were the kind of people who would never be satisfied, with themselves or anyone else. At least not in this lifetime.

Breaking free of that vortex had been one of the best things for me, even if it had led to a world of pain.

I’d dodged a bullet.

“Holy shit, that cake looks so good,” Jamie told me as Adam fed Chase a bite and the photographers’ flashes went wild. “The pictures from this wedding are going to be epic.”

“I can’t wait.”

“And I can’t wait for a slice,” Jamie said. “You promised you were going to feed me one, and I’m going to take you up on that.”

“Damn right I am,” I said.

It was such a simple contrast, seeing the rude remarks Parker and his fiance made compared to the warmth Jamie brought to almost any situation. If I let myself, I could live in that world, too.

That warmth and positivity felt like a lifeline, after being closed off for so long.

And I was going to follow it.